Part V — Joy and sorrow

Question: Most of our life, the finite life that we can see and feel, is usually surrounded by joy and suffering. Can we have a life of joy, or do we have to suffer, do we have to constantly sacrifice?

Sri Chinmoy: Sacrifice is a very vague word. When we use this word in the human sense, we feel that we are giving away something, and in return we are getting nothing. This is the human approach. If we give our precious time, our precious money, our precious capacity, and in return we do not get anything, then we feel that we have sacrificed. But if we live in a deeper and higher consciousness, we will see that there is no such thing as sacrifice. What we call "sacrifice" is only the outer expression of our universal oneness with another human being or with the rest of the world. When we feel our universal oneness with the entire world, then there is no such thing as sacrifice.

Suffering has not to be accepted as something divine and necessary in order to realise God. It is not true. If suffering comes to us, then we have to accept it. True, it can play the part of purification; it can purify our mind, our vital emotions and our psychic feelings. But it is wrong to feel that by deliberately accepting suffering we will be able to realise the Highest sooner. It is not through suffering, but through spontaneous delight that we shall get that realisation. Again, we have to know the difference between earthly pleasure and divine delight or joy. Pleasure is something that we get from the senses, by satisfying the senses, whereas joy or delight springs from a deeper source within us, and permeates our entire consciousness. Pleasure is something that eventually will lead us to destruction. Delight is something that will take us eventually to our Source.

In Sanskrit we have two terms: shreya and preya. The first is pleasure and the second is joy or good. If we sincerely care for good, then the life of pleasure has to leave us, because there is no goodness in it. It is something that wants to negate all our spiritual discipline.